Review Roundup: Andrew Stein's DISRUPTION Opens Off-Broadway

Disruption, a new play by Andrew Stein, directed by Hersh Ellis, just opened at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center. 

Does anyone know what would make them truly happy? Tech entrepreneur Nick thinks he has the answer. After tremendous Silicon Valley success and a big exit, Nick presents his three best friends with his next big idea: an algorithm that is more complex than the human brain and promises to guide them through big life decisions better and more effectively than they can guide themselves. In an era where every aspect of human life has been documented with data and disrupted by technology, do computers know us better than we know ourselves? And even if they do, should we listen? Andrew Stein’s sharp, unnerving thriller is a timely and insightful exploration of our tech obsessed world.

The cast of Disruption includes Emma Kikue as Raven, Irene Sofia Lucio as Mia, Jason Ralph as Barry, Conrad Ricamora as Ben, Elizabeth Stanley as Jill, Joe Tippett as Paul, John David Washington as Nick, and Shaunette Renée Wilson as Suzie. Octavia Chavez-Richmond, Carman Lacivita, Lauren Marcus, and Brian Miskell.

Check out what the critics are saying about the new play...

Juan A. Ramirez, Guardian: I admire a production like Disruption, which hands a top-notch cast adult, contemporary material. (Any chance to watch Elizabeth Stanley flex her comedic muscle is a boon.) Rushing to meet headlines might always yield hasty results, but at least we can be grateful that, in its messiness, Stein seems defiantly anti-AI.

Gillian Russo, New York Theatre Guide: In its more contrived moments, Disruption plays not unlike a satire, using the most extreme of examples as a cautionary tale about letting trust in, or passive acceptance of, data-mining technology erode our own critical thinking skills. Hersh Ellis's direction keeps the play from veering totally into broad satire, but there is plenty of poison-dart humor. Ellis effectively stokes an undercurrent of dread in the whole thing, one that propels the play even when the pacing or writing falter. That dread doesn't let up even after the final moment

Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: Though it centers on trailblazing (and rather threatening) technology, Disruption is a pretty by-the-numbers play. You won’t need an algorithm to predict the play’s ending; from the first scene, it’s clear where nearly all the characters will end up. (Nick’s final moments teeter on the ridiculous, though Washington pulls them off.) Considering how insidious and all-consuming this imaginary algorithm is, the Hersh Ellis–directed drama should feel more menacing. Instead, it just feels a little shady.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: Leaving the theater, this patron was no longer thinking about fish but about the belief that the aim of technology over several decades has been to make life simpler. Not seemingly intentionally, Stein builds a case here that it dramatically hasn’t. Quite the opposite.

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: Washington, who made a memorable Broadway debut as Boy Willie in the 2022 revival of The Piano Lesson, brings a similar sly hustler’s energy to Nick, a quick-witted salesman for his new project whose biggest hook is his own armor of success and invincibility. He’s initially well-matched by Lucio, who brings a spiky energy and dagger tongue to a digital-age femme fatale with a PhD in applied math and artificial intelligence. Disruption touches on some timely themes about the ways that technology is reshaping our lives, but too often the aura of intelligence here feels entirely artificial.

Joseph Verlezza, Theatre Reviews Limited: The cast is superb with no weak link in this ensemble piece. The characters are well defined by the actors as they create depth and substance, but at times the script leaves them wallowing on the surface. The themes of greed, power, control, self-absorption and deceit are clear, but there are questions that remain unresolved. Will you be happy not having control over your own life decisions? How much must you sacrifice to get what you want? Is the algorithm the problem or are the humans the problem? Does an algorithm even understand what happiness is? Who is morally corrupt? Nick for inventing the algorithm, or the three couples willing to use it? What seems to create the terror contained in Mr. Stein’s new play is not the fear of what the future of AI will create, but how humans will allow it to be used. This timely and thought-provoking play is worth seeing, but the best part will be the encore. The conversation that follows when you leave the theater.

Brian Scott Lipton , Cititour: I wouldn’t disrupt your August plans to fit “Disruption” into your schedules, but it may give you some food for thought or insight into your own lives.

Ron Fassler, Theater Pizzazz: What makes the play work is that it’s loaded with ideas, conflicts, and soul-searching dilemmas. What it has going against it is that its well-to-do forty-somethings may be difficult to care about, especially as they take up so much space in today’s film, television, and theatre. But when it’s done well, as it is here, set against an AI storyline that is very much of the moment, Disruption scores a lot of points.

Average Rating: 65.0%